November 18, 2004

train ride to 50th street station

My before ride experiance was interesting. I took my boyfriend and his friend with. I had all weekend to do this, but my friend came home from New York to visit for the weekend. We went last night (11/15/04) at about 10:30p.m. Once we got to the station we got our tickets and looked around. I noticed the train schedule and took a quick look. The schedule was very well lit, but a little confusing if you're used to a bus schedule. I had to study it for a minute. I was looking at everything else on the schedule instead of the time it came. I wondered around the station and found my boyfriend and his friend looking at a miniture t.v screen behind a glass case. It was showing a talking mime. Waiting for the train was making me a little nervous. It was probabaly because of the anticipation. It was cold and I thought it would kind of be like waiting for a bus at the MOA where you get to sit inside and wait. There were heating lights, but they wouldn't turn on. By the way, we were at the Fort Snelling station. The sound of the train coming made me a little scared because I have never been on anything like it before. The train came and we got on. We decided to go to The VA hospital, but then changed our minds and got off at 50th street and Minnehaha. During the ride, looked out the window and saw that we were high above the ground and I got real scared because I am terribly afraid of heights.
We got off at 50th street and I noticed more picture screens. This station had art on the sidewalk. There was also an old fashioned phone. I picked it up and it was playing soft music. I think these little pieces of art and other miscellaneous stuff are here for the train rider to look at while they wait. Or to make the stations look sophisticated. The term that I'm going to use is somnabulism. The train is not highly assessable to me because I live in Shoreview and Minneapolis is closer to me. Right now, I don't think I would take the train to any of the places it goes. Driving out to Mpls and then taking a train the the mall in the future will be a good idea, but it doesn't go there and I really don't like the idea of parking in Mpls and leaving my car.